Unit 3 Big Idea and Essential Questions

In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says the following about responsibility: "Look at the word responsibility- 'response-ability'- the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling." This unit explores this concept of one's ability and willingness to respond to the world around them.

What does it mean to be responsible?

What responsibilities do we have to ourselves? Our family? Our community? The world?

To who or what are we responsible?

What is the relationship between age and the level of responsibility? At what age should we be totally responsible and accountable for our actions?

What are the benefits and drawbacks of being held responsible for something?

Q3 Anchor Text:The Bean Trees

Each student in Mrs. West's English 10 class will be responsible for reading The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Click the image of the book cover to read a short summary of the novel that we will be reading in class!

SupplementaryText: "Fish cheeks"

In addition to our anchor text and other articles, we will be reading and analyzing "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan. This selection is also in your Language of Literature text book. Click the image of the book to download the full text of the short story!

Ethos, Pathos, LogosThe art of persuasion

Need an Opportunity for Extra Credit?

For extra credit, you may click on the picture of either author that we will be studying in class and do the following:

Print out the biography that you will be reading and a blank copy of the "4-Step" summary template.

Read and annotate the biography (must show evidence of a close read to get credit).